The leadership moment in circular start-ups
The purpose of this study was to explore leadership in circular start-ups. Circular start-ups are playing a key role in involving businesses in tackling the issues of environmental crisis. However, circular start-ups have not been a common empirical setting in leadership studies so far. The scalability of the business ideas among circular start-ups is a potential way of promoting sustainable development which calls for new knowledge in terms of how to successfully lead a young circular business.
This research aimed to gain insight into leadership in circular start-ups by applying the framework of the leadership moment model. As this research was a theory-elaborating study, the potential of the leadership moment model as a framework for leadership studies was tested simultaneously. The synthesis of the concepts of circular economy, circular business models, and environmental leadership into the leadership moment model constituted the theoretical framework of this research.
The empirical research was conducted using qualitative methods. The research data comprises semi-structured interviews of five founders of circular start-ups, some of whom were also holding the position of CEO in their respective companies. A deductive content analysis driven by the theoretical framework was performed on the data
The findings of this study show that the concepts of circular economy and circular business models define the leadership interactions in circular start-ups to some extent while environmental leadership was found to be an overarching theme in most leadership moments taking place in circular start-ups. The results support the viability of the leadership moment model as a framework for studying leadership. This research contributes to the leadership literature by presenting the leadership moment as a potential approach for future research. Additionally, this study adds to the limited research on leadership in circular start-ups and offers new directions for future research regarding environmental leadership in circular start-ups.
Authors:
Jarno Minkkinen
University of Eastern Finland
Published: University of Eastern Finland 2023 (PDF).
Potential beneficiaries of the results: Circular economy startup companies and research and development organizations that promote the networking of circular economy companies and offer support to these companies.
More information:
Hanna Lehtimäki
University of Eastern Finland
hanna.lehtimaki@uef.fi
Jarno Minkkinen
University of Eastern Finland
jarno.minkkinen@uef.fi